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Oral History Interview with Terry Sanford, May 14, 1976. Interview A-0328-1. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) in the Southern Oral History Program Collection, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

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BRENT GLASS:

Had the exodus of black people to the North started up in your section of
the state in the 20's?

TERRY SANFORD:

I wasn't looking at it from the point of view where I could tell whether
there was an exodus or not. There were plenty left. I suppose
I was taking "Rural Sociology" in Chapel
Hill before I knew about the exodus. But I remember a great many people.
I actually remember more white people leaving to go to, as they called
it, "De-troit" to get jobs in the automobile industry.
And I don't remember a great many, but I remember one family of Coopers
where one of the brothers went up there, then several others went. They
seemed to do very well. They certainly had high-paying jobs compared to
what they were getting working on the farm. This, as a matter of fact,
was an old family of Revolutionary ties that just, like so many people
in the farming business, had fallen on bad days. There was a great deal
of mobility among the blacks that was visible, but I had the impression
mostly they were moving from farm to farm instead of leaving the country
entirely, though I really wouldn't have had much way to get a feedback
on that. I don't know that there was much feedback. They probably went
and disappeared.